1. Technical Field
One or more embodiments of the present invention relate generally to commerce within a social networking system. More specifically, one or more embodiments of the present invention relate to managing social networking system for-sale groups.
2. Background and Relevant Art
While commercial settings are commonly utilized for the purchase of goods, people also buy and sell goods in non-commercial settings. For example, garage sales, yard sales, and estate sales provide a setting where individuals can negotiate the sale and purchase of a wide range goods. These informal, non-commercial settings embody the notion that “one man's trash is another man's treasure,” and provide individuals with ways to sell things they no longer want, or purchase things they need for less than they would typically spend in a commercial setting.
It is not surprising that the garage sale format of buying and selling goods has transitioned online via social networking system “for-sale” groups. A social networking system generally allows for the formation of forum-like groups dedicated to a singular purpose. Social networking system users can join a social networking system group to participate in discussions, ask questions, post articles, etc. A social networking system for-sale group typically functions like a neighborhood garage sale and allows users to submit sale listings that advertise goods they would like to sell. Users can view all the posts and listings included in a for-sale group and utilize features of the social networking system to comment on a particular listing or send a message to the seller associated with the particular listing in order to negotiate a price, make a purchase, or arrange for a pick up.
After a user joins multiple for-sale groups, a problem generally arise for that user when the user wants to scan sale listings included in each for-sale group. For example, in order to view sale listings for all of the for-sale groups that the user has joined, the user generally must navigate to a social networking system web page for each for-sale group. Furthermore, once the user lands on each for-sale group web page within the social networking system, the user must typically scroll through multiple sale listings that are of no interest to the user before viewing a sale listing that the user finds interesting. The process of visiting multiple web pages in succession and scrolling through sale listings of no interest wastes time and is inefficient.
In some cases, in response to a user joining a for-sale group, the social networking system can add the sale listings from the joined for-sale group to the user's personal newsfeed. For example, a social networking system typically provides a personal newsfeed for each user where the user can see social networking system posts from other social networking system users with whom the user is associated. When the social networking system adds sale listings from a for-sale group to the user's personal newsfeed, however, the user still faces problems similar to those enumerated above. For instance, social networking system generally intersperses the sale listings among the other social networking system posts within the user's personal newsfeed such that the user's personal newsfeed is chronologically ordered. Thus, the user still has to scroll through a large amount of material in order to view sale listings that are of interest to the user. This too wastes the user's time and is very inefficient.
Thus, there are several disadvantages to current methods for managing for-sale groups within a social networking system.